Programs & Services

Our specialists guide you through each stage of care. We focus on safe, effective treatment, so you and your child can feel confident in every step of their health journey.

• Referral and scheduling: Our team reviews your child’s health history and schedules the needed imaging and tests.
• Comprehensive evaluation: You’ll meet with our chest wall specialists to discuss test results, goals, timing and treatment options.
• Personalized treatment options: Your child’s care plan may include physical therapy, bracing when appropriate or minimally invasive surgery, depending on their needs and goals. Throughout it all, our team takes your child’s life into account, including school, sports and travel timing.
• Surgery, if needed, and recovery: Most children spend one night in the hospital after a Nuss (MIRPE) procedure. Cryoablation helps manage pain effectively, reducing your child’s need for medication during recovery.
• Follow-up and bar removal: We see your child at key milestones after surgery. Temporary bars placed during the Nuss procedure are typically removed during a short outpatient visit a few years after surgery.

Our team uses advanced diagnostic tools to take an in-depth look at how your child’s chest issues affect their heart and lungs, including:

• Echocardiogram: Evaluates the heart’s structure and rules out genetic issues.
• MRI: Provides a three-dimensional look at the chest’s shape and how it affects the heart and lungs.
• Stress testing: Measures heart and lung function, including VO₂ Max, which indicates how much oxygen is used during exercise.

These tests help guide your child’s care plan and assess whether surgical or non-surgical treatment is most likely to achieve the desired results.

The Nuss procedure is the gold standard of treatment for children with pectus excavatum. The minimally invasive surgery reshapes your child’s chest by placing small, curved bars beneath their sternum. The bars lift the chest into a correct position and hold it there. The bars stay in place for several years to allow the chest to remodel and are then removed in a short outpatient procedure.

Before surgery, your child will have a thorough evaluation that includes imaging and heart-lung testing to confirm that the Nuss procedure is the right option and to guide treatment planning. During surgery, our team uses small incisions and camera guidance to place the support bar with precision.

Our surgeons have performed well over 1,000 of these repairs, making Phoenix Children’s one of the busiest centers in the nation and a program with a depth of experience not often found elsewhere.

We use a process called cryoablation during surgery to lessen your child’s discomfort and reduce the need for pain medication after surgery. This innovative technique temporarily freezes targeted nerves along the ribs, significantly reducing pain as the chest adjusts to its new position.

With this approach, children need fewer opioids, spend less time in the hospital and return to school and daily activities much sooner. Sensation gradually returns over several months, and most children are fully recovered within six months.

Redo surgery for pectus can be more complex, especially if your child has scar tissue or previous repairs that need to be addressed. The surgeons at Phoenix Children’s have extensive experience with these procedures. We collaborate closely with families, your child’s original care team and the initial facility to review what was done before. Then we use this information to create a thoughtful, individualized treatment plan. This coordinated approach helps ensure your child receives the safest, most effective care possible.